Backlight and Ambient Light Sensor System

ABSTRACT

Apparatuses and methods to operate a display device of an electronic device. In some embodiments, a method includes receiving a user setting or input of a display control parameter, and causing or altering, based on the user setting or input, an effect of an ambient light sensor value (ALS) on control of the display control parameter. The user input may be an unlock of a touch screen input capability of the display device, and a wake of the display device from an inactivity dim. Also, according to embodiments of the inventions, a method of operating a display of an electronic device includes receiving a change to one of a display brightness output level and an ambient light sensor output level, and altering, according to the change, a display brightness or contrast output level. Other apparatuses and methods and data processing systems and machine readable media are also described.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a Continuation-in-Part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/650,014 filed Jan. 5, 2007 entitled “Backlight and AmbientLight Sensor System”.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to the field of electronic devices and, inparticular, to systems and methods for operating a display device of aportable device.

2. Description of Related Art

Electronic portable and non-portable devices, such as computers and cellphones, are becoming increasingly common. Such portable devices havegrown more complex over time, incorporating many features including, forexample, MP3 player capabilities, web browsing capabilities,capabilities of personal digital assistants (PDAs) and the like.

The battery life of these portable devices, however, can be limited.Often, the primary draw of battery power is the display device for theseportable devices and, in particular, the backlight, which can be used toilluminate the display device. The display device may also be asignificant draw of power for non-portable electronic devices. Thebacklight may provide a background light or color over which text,pictures and/or images are displayed. In many current portable devices,an exemplary process 10 for illuminating the display is shown in FIG.1A. In this process, the backlight is activated (e.g. turned on togenerate light) when a user enters a key input into the electronicdevice as shown in operation 12. A timer is started at operation 14 inresponse to activating the backlight, and the electronic devicedetermines, at operation 16, whether a time out of the timer hasoccurred. If the electronic device receives a user key input atoperation 18, the timer restarts (in operation 14) and the processcontinues as described above. If the electronic device does not receivea user input while the timer is counting, the time out will occur, andthe backlight is deactivated at operation 19.

Some of these electronic devices may also include multiple sensors whichare used to detect the environment or context associated with theseelectronic devices. For example, U.S. patent application publication no.2005/0219228 describes a device which includes many sensors, including aproximity sensor and a light sensor. The outputs from the sensors areprocessed to determine a device environment or context. The light sensordetects ambient light levels and the proximity sensor detects aproximity to an object, such as a user's ear or face. In this case,there are two separate sensors which require two openings in the housingof the device. This is shown in FIG. 1B, which shows a device 20. Thedevice 20 includes a proximity sensor 22 mounted on a surface of thedevice 20 and an ambient light sensor 24 also mounted on the surface ofthe device 20. Each of these sensors is distinct from the other, andseparate openings in the surface are needed for each sensor.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The various apparatuses, software and methods described herein relate tooperating a display of an apparatus which receives user input, sensesproximity and detects light, such as ambient light, and to systems, suchas data processing systems, which use software which changes displaycontrol parameters of an electronic device according to the user inputand an ambient light level.

According to some embodiments of the inventions, a method of operating adisplay device of an electronic device, includes receiving a usersetting of a display control parameter, and altering, based on the usersetting, an effect of an ambient light sensor value (ALS) on control ofthe display control parameter. Also, the setting may be a change of theuser setting and the altering may automatically be caused by the change.Moreover, the display control parameter may be the physical brightnesslevel of a backlight of a display of a portable device. In some cases,the display control parameter may be proportional to the user settingand the light sensor value. The method may additionally includedisplaying a physical brightness level of a backlight of a display of anelectronic device according to the display control parameter.

Further, according to some embodiments of the inventions, a method ofoperating a display of an electronic device may include receiving achange to a user selected brightness level of a display brightnesslevel, and altering, according to the change, an effect of an ambientlight sensor (ALS) output weight of an ambient light sensor output levelon control of the display brightness level. Also, the brightness levelmay be automatically altered for a display of a portable device, and themethod may also include receiving a plurality of ambient light sensoroutput levels from a plurality of ambient light sensors, weighting eachof the plurality of ambient light sensor outputs depending on a locationof each of the plurality of ambient light sensors on the device, andsetting the ambient light sensor output level to an aggregate of theweighted plurality of ambient light sensor outputs. It is alsoconsidered that the physical brightness level may be proportional to theambient light sensor output level times the weight, and an increase inthe user selected brightness level automatically decreases the ambientlight sensor output weight according to a linear relationship orautomatically alters the ambient light sensor output weight according toa “bell” shaped curve relationship.

Likewise, according to embodiments of the inventions, a method ofoperating a display of an electronic device includes receiving a changeto display brightness output level or an ambient light sensor outputlevel, and altering, according to the change, wherein the displaycontrast output level is based on the display brightness output leveland the ambient light sensor output level. Moreover, an increase in thedisplay brightness output level may automatically cause a decrease inthe display contrast output level, and/or an increase in the sensoroutput level may automatically cause an increase in the display contrastoutput level.

According to some embodiments of the inventions, a method of operating adisplay of an electronic device may include receiving a user input tocontrol a user interface feature level, and setting a weight of a lightsensor (ALS) output value that the user interface feature level is basedon. In some instances, the user input may be a change to a user settingand the change may automatically cause the weight to change.

According to some embodiments of the inventions, a method of operating adisplay device of an electronic device may include receiving a userinput of a first display control parameter; and causing, as a result ofthe input, an effect of an ambient light sensor (ALS) value on controlof a second display control parameter. The first display controlparameter may be an unlock of a touch screen input capability of thedisplay device, or a wake of the display device from an inactivity dim;and the second display control parameter may be a brightness level ofthe display device. According to some embodiments, the method includes,if the ALS value is greater than a lock threshold, automaticallycausing, based on the ALS value, an increase in the display controlparameter; and if the ALS value is less than the lock threshold,automatically causing, based on the ALS value, a decrease in the displaycontrol parameter. According to some embodiments, the method includes,if the ALS value is greater than a wake threshold, automaticallycausing, based on the ALS value, a first increase in the display controlparameter; and if the ALS value is less than the wake threshold,automatically causing, not based on the ALS value, a predeterminedsecond increase in the display control parameter, wherein the secondincrease is less than the first increase.

Next, according to some embodiments of the inventions, a method ofoperating a display device of an electronic device may include receivingan ambient light sensor (ALS) value change and, if the change is anincrease, automatically altering, based on the ALS value change, aneffect of the ALS value change on control of the display controlparameter; or if the change is a decrease, not automatically altering,based on the ALS value change, an effect of the ALS value change oncontrol of the display control parameter. According to some embodiments,the method includes, if the value change is greater than a predeterminedtransition threshold, automatically causing, based on the value change,an increase in the display control parameter; and if the value change isless than the predetermined transition threshold, causing the displaycontrol parameter to not become brighter or dimmer.

Finally, in some embodiments, a method of operating a proximity sensorof an electronic device includes receiving a light sensor output, andaltering, according to the output, an on/off setting of a proximitysensor.

Other apparatuses, data processing systems, methods and machine readablemedia are also described.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example and notlimitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereferences indicate similar elements.

FIG. 1A is flow chart of a prior art method for responding to user inputand controlling the backlight of a display in response to the userinput;

FIG. 1B shows an example of a prior art device which includes twoseparate sensors;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a portable device in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a portable device in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a portable device in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5A is a perspective view of a portable device in a firstconfiguration (e.g. in an open configuration) in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5B is a perspective view of the portable device of FIG. 5A in asecond configuration (e.g. a closed configuration) in accordance withone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a system in which embodiments of thepresent invention can be implemented;

FIG. 7A is a schematic side view of a proximity sensor in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7B is a schematic side view of an alternative proximity sensor inaccordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7C is a flow chart which shows a method of operating a proximitysensor which is capable of detecting light from a source other than theemitter of the proximity sensor;

FIG. 7D shows an example of a proximity sensor with associated logic;

FIG. 8 is a schematic side view of a combined proximity sensor andambient light sensor in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 9A is a graph showing examples of ambient light sensor (ALS) weightranges versus user selected brightness range according to a linearrelationship;

FIG. 9B shows an example of an ALS weight range versus user selectedbrightness range according to a “bell” shaped curve relationship;

FIG. 9C shows examples of device physical brightness level ranges versusALS output level range for a “bell” shaped curve relationship betweenALS weight and user selected brightness;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a digital processing system in accordancewith one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a process for operating a display device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments and aspects of the inventions will be described withreference to details discussed below, and the accompanying drawings willillustrate the various embodiments. The following description anddrawings are illustrative of the invention and are not to be construedas limiting the invention. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a through understanding of various embodiments of the presentinvention. However, in certain instances, well-known or conventionaldetails are not described in order to provide a concise discussion ofembodiments of the present inventions.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented interms of algorithms which include operations on data stored within acomputer memory. An algorithm is generally a self-consistent sequence ofoperations leading to a desired result. The operations typically requireor involve physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually,though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical ormagnetic signals capable of being stored, processed, transferred,combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenientat times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to thesesignals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers,or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “receiving” or “altering” or “processing” or “computing”or “calculating” or “determining” or “displaying” or the like, can referto the action and processes of a data processing device or system, orsimilar electronic device, that manipulates and transforms datarepresented as physical (electronic) quantities within the system'sregisters, storage devices, and memories into other data similarlyrepresented as physical quantities within the system's memories, storagedevices, or registers or other such information storage, transmission ordisplay devices.

The present invention can relate to an apparatus for performing one ormore of the acts or operations described herein. This apparatus may bespecially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise ageneral purpose computer selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in the computer. Such a computer program may bestored in a machine (e.g. computer) readable storage medium, such as,but is not limited to, any type of disk including floppy disks, opticaldisks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs),random access memories (RAMs), flash memory, erasable programmable ROMs(EPROMs), electrically erasable programmable ROMs (EEPROMs), magnetic oroptical cards, or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions, and each coupled to a bus.

A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing ortransmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., acomputer). For example, a machine-readable medium includes read onlymemory (“ROM”); random access memory (“RAM”); magnetic disk storagemedia; optical storage media; flash memory devices; electrical, optical,acoustical or other form of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves,infrared signals, digital signals, etc.); etc.

At least certain embodiments of the inventions may be part of a digitalmedia player, such as a portable music and/or video media player, whichmay include a media processing system to present the media, a storagedevice to store the media and may further include a radio frequency (RF)transceiver (e.g., an RF transceiver for a cellular telephone) coupledwith an antenna system and the media processing system. In certainembodiments, media stored on a remote storage device may be transmittedto the media player through the RF transceiver. The media may be, forexample, one or more of music or other audio, still pictures, or motionpictures.

The portable media player may include a media selection device, such asa click wheel input device on an iPod® or iPod Nano® media player fromApple Computer, Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., a touch screen input device,pushbutton device, movable pointing input device or other input device.The media selection device may be used to select the media stored on thestorage device and/or the remote storage device. The portable mediaplayer may, in at least certain embodiments, include a display devicewhich is coupled to the media processing system to display titles orother indicators of media being selected through the input device andbeing presented, either through a speaker or earphone(s), or on thedisplay device, or on both display device and a speaker or earphone(s).Examples of a portable media player are described in published U.S.patent application numbers 2003/0095096 and 2004/0224638, both of whichare incorporated herein by reference.

Embodiments of the inventions described herein may be part of othertypes of data processing systems, such as, for example, entertainmentsystems or personal digital assistants (PDAs), or general purposecomputer systems, or special purpose computer systems, or an embeddeddevice within another device, or cellular telephones which do notinclude media players, or devices which combine aspects or functions ofthese devices (e.g., a media player, such as an iPod®, combined with aPDA, an entertainment system, and a cellular telephone in one portabledevice).

FIG. 2 illustrates a portable device 30 according to one embodiment ofthe invention. FIG. 2 shows a wireless device in a telephoneconfiguration having a “candy-bar” style. In FIG. 2, the wireless device30 may include various features such as a housing 32, a display device34, an input device 36 which may be an alphanumeric keypad, a speaker38, a microphone 40 and an antenna 42. The wireless device 30 also mayinclude an ambient light sensor (ALS) and/or proximity sensor 44 and anaccelerometer 46. It will be appreciated that the embodiment of FIG. 2may use more or fewer sensors and may have a different form factor fromthe form factor shown in FIG. 2. It will also be appreciated that theparticular locations of the above-described features may vary inalternative embodiments.

The display device 34 may be, for example, a liquid crystal display(LCD) which does not include the ability to accept inputs or a touchinput screen which also includes an LCD. Device 34 may be operated asdescribed herein and may include a backlight as described herein. Theinput device 36 may include, for example, buttons, switches, dials,sliders, keys or keypad, navigation pad, touch pad, touch screen, andthe like.

The ALS and/or proximity sensor 44 may describe one or more ALS sensors,proximity sensors, and/or combined proximity and ALS sensors. Sensor 44may detect location (e.g. at least one of X, Y, Z), direction of motion,speed, etc. of objects relative to the wireless device 30, and/or anambient light environment at device 30.

In addition, a processing device (not shown) is coupled to the proximitysensor(s) 44. The processing device may be used to determine thelocation of objects and/or an ambient light environment relative to theportable device 30, the ALS and/or or proximity sensor 44 based on theambient light, location and/or movement data provided by the ALS and/orproximity sensor 44. The ALS and/or proximity sensor may continuously orperiodically monitor the ambient light and/or object location. Theproximity sensor may also be able to determine the type of object it isdetecting. The ALSs described herein may be able to detect in intensity,brightness, amplitude, or level of ambient light and/or ambient visiblelight, incident upon the ALS and/or display device. FIG. 3 shows analternative portable device 30 a, which is similar to the portabledevice 30 illustrated in FIG. 2. The portable device 30 a shown in FIG.3 can differ from the portable device 30 shown in FIG. 2 in that the ALSand/or proximity sensor 44 a (FIG. 3) is located at or near themicrophone 40.

FIG. 4 shows a portable device 50 in accordance with one embodiment ofthe invention. The portable device 50 may include a housing 52, adisplay/input device 54, a speaker 56, a microphone 58 and an optionalantenna 60 (which may be visible on the exterior of the housing or maybe concealed within the housing). The portable device 50 also mayinclude an ALS and/or proximity sensor 62 and an accelerometer 64. Theportable device 50 may be a cellular telephone or a device which is anintegrated PDA and a cellular telephone or a device which is anintegrated media player and a cellular telephone or a device which isboth an entertainment system (e.g. for playing games) and a cellulartelephone, or the portable device 50 may be other types of devicesdescribed herein. In one particular embodiment, the portable device 50may include a cellular telephone and a media player and a PDA, allcontained within the housing 52. The portable device 50 may have a formfactor which is small enough that it fits within the hand of a normaladult and is light enough that it can be carried in one hand by anadult. It will be appreciated that the term “portable” means the devicecan be easily held in an adult user's hands (one or both); for example,a laptop computer and an iPod are portable devices.

In one embodiment, the display/input device 54 may include a multi-pointtouch input screen in addition to being a display, such as an LCD.Device 54 may be described as or include a touch screen, display deviceand/or “screen”. More particularly, herein a display device (e.g., seeFIGS. 9-11, without limitation thereto) may describe a display or screenhaving the functionality of a touch screen (e.g., a multi-point touchinput screen), such as device 54. A processing device (not shown) may becoupled to the display/input device 54. The processing device may beused to calculate proximity, ALS and/or touches on the touch panel ortouch screen.

The data acquired from the ALS and/or proximity sensor 62 and thedisplay/input device 54 can be combined to gather information about theuser's location (e.g., about the ambient light environment of the user,device, and/or display) and activities as described herein. The datafrom the ALS and/or proximity sensor 62 and the display/input device 54can be used to change one or more settings of the portable device 50,such as, for example, change an illumination or backlight setting of thedisplay/input device 54.

In embodiments, the display/input device 54 occupies a large portion,substantially all of, or at least 75% of one surface (e.g. the topsurface) of the housing 52 of the portable device 50. In an alternateembodiment the display/input device can occupies less than 75%, of onesurface (e.g. the top surface) of the housing 52 of the portable device50. Also, in alternative embodiments, the portable device 50 may includea display which does not have input capabilities, but the display stilloccupies a large portion of one surface of the portable device 50. Inthis case, the portable device 50 may include other types of inputdevices such as a QWERTY keyboard or other types of keyboard which slideout or swing out from a portion of the portable device 50.

FIGS. 5A and 5B illustrate a portable device 70 according to oneembodiment of the invention. The portable device 70 may be a cellulartelephone which includes a hinge 87 that couples a display housing 89 toa keypad housing 91. The hinge 87 allows a user to open and close thecellular telephone so that it can be placed in at least one of twodifferent configurations shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B. In one particularembodiment, the hinge 87 may rotatably couple the display housing to thekeypad housing. In particular, a user can open the cellular telephone toplace it in the open configuration shown in FIG. 5A and can close thecellular telephone to place it in the closed configuration shown in FIG.5B. The keypad housing 91 may include a keypad 95 which receives inputs(e.g. telephone number inputs or other alphanumeric inputs) from a userand a microphone 97 which receives voice input from the user. Thedisplay housing 89 may include, on its interior surface, a display 93(e.g. an LCD) and a speaker 98 and an ALS and/or proximity sensor 84; onits exterior surface, the display housing 89 may include a speaker 96, atemperature sensor 94, a display 88 (e.g. another LCD), an ambient lightsensor 92, and an ALS and/or proximity sensor 84A. Hence, in thisembodiment, the display housing 89 may include a first ALS and/orproximity sensor on its interior surface and a second ALS and/orproximity sensor on its exterior surface. The first ALS and/or proximitysensor may be used to detect an ambient light environment and/or auser's head or ear being within a certain distance of the first ALSand/or proximity sensor and to cause an illumination setting of displays93 and 88 to be changed (automatically in some cases) in response tothis detecting.

In at least certain embodiments, the portable device 70 may containcomponents which provide one or more of the functions of a wirelesscommunication device such as a cellular telephone, a media player, anentertainment system, a PDA, or other types of devices described herein.In one implementation of an embodiment, the portable device 70 may be acellular telephone integrated with a media player which plays MP3 files,such as MP3 music files.

It is also considered that and electronic device or portable devicedescribed herein, such as the devices shown in FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 5A and 5B,may have a form factor or configuration having a “candy-bar” style, a“flip-phone” style, a “sliding” form, and or a “swinging” form. Forexample, a “candy-bar” style may be described above in FIG. 2 forwireless device 30. Also, a “flip-phone” style may be described above inFIG. 5A and 5B for device 70. A “sliding” form may describe where akeypad portion of a device slides away from another portion (e.g., theother portion including a display) of the device, such as by slidingalong guides or rails on one of the portions. A “swinging” form maydescribe where a keypad portion of a device swings sideways away (asopposed to the “flip-phone” style swinging up and down) from anotherportion (e.g., the other portion including a display) of the device,such as by swinging on a hinge attaching the portions.

Each of the devices shown in FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 5A and 5B may be a wirelesscommunication device, such as a cellular telephone, and may include aplurality of components which provide a capability for wirelesscommunication. FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of a wireless device 100 whichincludes the capability for wireless communication. The wireless device100 may be included in any one of the devices shown in FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 5Aand 5B, although alternative embodiments of those devices of FIGS. 2-5Bmay include more or fewer components than the wireless device 100.

Wireless device 100 may include an antenna system 101. Wireless device100 may also include one or more digital and/or analog radio frequency(RF) transceivers 102, coupled to the antenna system 101, to transmitand/or receive voice, digital data and/or media signals through antennasystem 101. Transceivers 102, may include on or more infrared (IR)transceivers, WHYFI transceivers, Blue Tooth™ transceivers, and/orwireless cellular transceivers.

Wireless device 100 may also include a digital processing device orsystem 103 to control the digital RF transceivers and to manage thevoice, digital data and/or media signals. Digital processing system 103may be a general purpose processing device, such as a microprocessor orcontroller for example. Digital processing system 103 may also be aspecial purpose processing device, such as an ASIC (application specificintegrated circuit), FPGA (field-programmable gate array) or DSP(digital signal processor). Digital processing system 103 may alsoinclude other devices, as are known in the art, to interface with othercomponents of wireless device 100. For example, digital processingsystem 103 may include analog-to-digital and digital-to-analogconverters to interface with other components of wireless device 100.Digital processing system 103 may include a media processing system 109,which may also include a general purpose or special purpose processingdevice to manage media, such as files of audio data.

Wireless device 100 may also include a storage device 104 (e.g.,memory), coupled to the digital processing system, to store data and/oroperating programs for the wireless device 100. Storage device 104 maybe, for example, any type of solid-state or magnetic memory device.

Wireless device 100 may also include one or more input devices 105(e.g., user interface controls, or I/O devices), coupled to the digitalprocessing system 103, to accept user inputs (e.g., telephone numbers,names, addresses, media selections, user settings, user selectedbrightness levels, etc.) Input device 105 may be, for example, one ormore of a keypad, a touchpad, a touch screen, a pointing device incombination with a display device or similar input device.

Wireless device 100 may also include at least one display device 106,coupled to the digital processing system 103, to display text, images,and/or video. Device 106 may display information such as messages,telephone call information, user settings, user selected brightnesslevels, contact information, pictures, movies and/or titles or otherindicators of media being selected via the input device 105. Displaydevice 106 may be, for example, an LCD display device. In oneembodiment, display device 106 and input device 105 may be integratedtogether in the same device (e.g., a touch screen LCD such as amulti-touch input panel which is integrated with a display device, suchas an LCD display device). Examples of a touch input panel and a displayintegrated together are shown in U.S. published application No.20060097991. The display device 106 may include a backlight 106 a toilluminate the display device 106 under certain circumstances. Device106 and/or backlight 106 a may be operated as described herein, such asto set, control, or alter a display parameter as described herein. Itwill be appreciated that the wireless device 100 may include multipledisplays. The descriptions above for display 106 and backlight 106 aapply to other displays described herein, including those referred tofor FIGS. 2-5 and 9-11.

Wireless device 100 may also include a battery 107 to supply operatingpower to components of the system including digital RF transceivers 102,digital processing system 103, storage device 104, input device 105,microphone 105A, audio transducer 108, media processing system 109,sensor(s) 110, and display device 106. Battery 107 may be, for example,a rechargeable or non-rechargeable lithium or nickel metal hydridebattery.

Wireless device 100 may also include one or more sensors 110 coupled tothe digital processing system 103. The sensor(s) 110 may include, forexample, one or more of a proximity sensor, accelerometer, touch inputpanel, ambient light sensor, ambient noise sensor, temperature sensor,gyroscope, a hinge detector, a position determination device, anorientation determination device, a motion sensor, a sound sensor, aradio frequency electromagnetic wave sensor, and other types of sensorsand combinations thereof. Based on the data acquired by the sensor(s)110, various responses may be performed (automatically in some cases) bythe digital processing system, such as, for example, activating,deactivating, changing, controlling, and/or altering the backlight 106a. Other responses that may be performed include changing a setting ofthe input device 105.

Also, in some embodiments, sensors, displays, transceivers, digitalprocessing systems, processor, processing logic, memories and/or storagedevice may include one or more integrated circuits disposed on one ormore printed circuit boards (PCB).

FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate exemplary proximity sensors in accordancewith embodiments of the invention. It will be appreciated that, inalternative embodiments, other types of proximity sensors, such ascapacitive sensors or sonar-like sensors, may be used rather than theproximity sensors shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B. In FIG. 7A, the proximitysensor 120 includes an emitter 122, a detector 124, and a window 126.The emitter 122 generates light in the infrared (IR) bands, and may be,for example, a Light Emitting Diode (LED). The detector 124 isconfigured to detect changes in light intensity and may be, for example,a phototransistor. The window 126 may be formed from translucent orsemi-translucent material. In one embodiment, the window 126 is anacoustic mesh, such as, for example, a mesh typically found with amicrophone or speaker of the electronic device. In other embodiments,the window 126 may be MicroPerf, IR transparent strands wound in a mesh,or a cold mirror.

During operation, the light from the emitter 122 hits an object 128 andscatters (e.g., is reflected by the object) when the object is presentabove the window 126. The light from the emitter may be emitted insquare wave pulses which have a known frequency, thereby allowing thedetector 124 to distinguish between ambient light and light from emitter122 which is reflected by an object, such as the user's head or ear or amaterial in a user's pocket, back to the detector 124. At least aportion of the scattered light is reflected towards the detector 124.The increase in light intensity is detected by the detector 124, andthis is interpreted by a processing device or system (not shown in FIG.7A) to mean an object is present within a short distance of the detector124. If no object is present or the object is beyond a certain distancefrom the detector 124, an insufficient or smaller amount of the emittedlight is reflected back towards the detector 124, and this isinterpreted by the processing system (not shown in FIG. 7A) to mean thatan object is not present or is at a relatively large distance. In eachcase, the proximity sensor is measuring the intensity of reflected lightwhich is related to the distance between the object which reflects thelight and detector 124.

In FIG. 7B, the emitter 122 and detector 124 of the proximity sensor areangled inward towards one another to improve detection of the reflectedlight, but the proximity sensor of FIG. 7B otherwise operates in amanner similar to the proximity sensor of FIG. 7A.

A proximity sensor in one embodiment of the inventions includes theability to both sense proximity and detect electromagnetic radiation,such as ambient light, from a source other than the emitter of theproximity sensor. The use of IR light for both the emitter and thedetector of the proximity sensor may be advantageous because IR light issubstantially present in most sources of ambient light (such assunshine, incandescent lamps, LED light sources, candles, and to someextent, even fluorescent lamps). Thus, the detector can detect ambientIR light, which will generally represent, in most environments, ambientlight levels at wavelengths other than IR, and use the ambient IR lightlevel to effectively and reasonably accurately represent ambient lightlevels at wavelengths other than IR.

A method of operating a proximity sensor which includes the ability toboth sense proximity and detect light is shown in FIG. 7C and anexample, in block diagram form, of such a proximity sensor is shown inFIG. 7D. The method of FIG. 7C may use the proximity sensor shown inFIG. 7D or other proximity sensors. The method includes operation 135 inwhich electromagnetic radiation (e.g. IR light) is emitted from theemitter of the proximity sensor. The emitter may emit the radiation in aknown, predetermined pattern (e.g. a train of square wave pulses ofknown, predetermined pulse width and frequency) which allows a detectorto distinguish between ambient radiation and radiation from the emitter.In operation 137, the detector of the proximity sensor detects andmeasures light from the emitter when the detector is operating inproximity sensing mode. A processor coupled to the detector may processthe signal from the detector to identify the known predetermined patternof radiation from the emitter and to measure the amount of radiationfrom the emitter. In operation 139, the detector is used in a mode tosense radiation (e.g. ambient IR light) from a source other than theemitter; this operation may be implemented in a variety of ways. Forexample, the emitted light from the emitter may be disabled by a shutter(either a mechanical or electrical shutter) placed over the emitter orthe emitter's power source may be turned off (thereby stopping theemission of radiation from the emitter). Alternatively, known signalprocessing techniques may be used to remove the effect of the emitter'semitted light which is received at the detector in order to extract outthe light from sources other than the emitter. It will be appreciatedthat operations 135, 137 and 139 may be performed in a sequence which isdifferent than the sequence shown in FIG. 7C.

FIG. 7D shows an embodiment of a range sensing IR proximity sensor 145which includes the ability to sense and measure proximity and to detectand measure ambient light levels. The proximity sensor 145 includes anIR emitter 147 (e.g. an IR LED) and an IR detector 149. An optionalshutter (e.g. an LCD electronic shutter) may be disposed over theemitter 147. The IR emitter 147 and the IR detector 149 may be coupledto a microcontroller 151 which may control switching between proximitysensing mode and ambient light sensing mode by either closing andopening an optional shutter or by turning on and off the power to the IRemitter 147. The output from the IR detector 149 may be provided fromthe microcontroller 151 to the microprocessor 153 which determines, fromdata from the proximity sensor 145, at least one proximity value anddetermines at least one ambient light level value. In an alternativeembodiment, the microprocessor may be coupled to the IR emitter 147 andto the IR detector 149 without an intervening microcontroller, and themicroprocessor may perform the functions of the microcontroller (e.g.the microprocessor may control switching between proximity sensing modeand ambient light sensing mode). The microprocessor 153 may be coupledto other components 155, such as input (e.g. keypad) or output (e.g.display) devices or memory devices or other sensors or a wirelesstransceiver system, etc. For example, the microprocessor 153 may be themain processor of the wireless device 100 shown in FIG. 6. In thoseembodiments in which a shutter over the IR emitter is not used and IRemissions from the IR emitter 147 are received at the IR detector 149while the IR detector 149 is measuring ambient light levels, themicroprocessor 153 (or the microcontroller 151) may filter out the knownpredetermined pattern of IR light from the IR emitter 147 in order toextract a signal from the IR detector 149 representing the IR lightlevel from sources other than the IR emitter 147.

FIG. 8 is a schematic side view of a combined proximity sensor andambient light sensor in accordance with one embodiment of the invention.FIG. 8 shows combined sensor 820 including emitter 822, detector 824 andcovering 826, such as to detect the proximity of an object to the sensorand an ambient light level or intensity at the sensor. FIG. 8 also showslogic 830, such as a processor and/or processing logic for controlling,receiving, scaling, subtracting, and/or determining outputs ofcomponents of sensor 820 (e.g., emitter 822, detector 824, logic 830 andcomponents thereof) to determine proximity and/or ambient light. FIG. 8also shows fence 810, such as a fence that is antireflective ornon-transmissive for radiation of emitter 822. Fence 810 may be a fence,a wall or a barrier disposed between the emitter and the detector,extending all the way up to covering 826. Fence 810 is optional.Covering 826 may or may not be a covering similar to covering 126,emitter 822 may or may not be an emitter similar to emitter 122 asdescribed above for FIGS. 7A through 7D.

Emitter 822 is shown emitting emitted radiation 870 which may berefracted as refracted radiation 872 by covering 826. Emitter 822 may bean infrared (IR) light emitter or transmitter, and may emit IR lightmodulated at a modulation frequency. Also, radiation 870 may bereflected by object 888 as shown by reflected emitter radiation 874,which may be received by detector 824. Object 888 may be an objecthaving proximity D and an IR light reflective surface or material, andmay be an object like object 128.

FIG. 8 shows detector 824 including sensor 850, sensor 852, and filter856. Sensor 850 may be described as a sensor configured to detectelectromagnetic radiation from emitter 822, and ambient radiation 872.Sensor 852 may be a sensor as described above for sensor 850, exceptthat sensor 852 is covered with or has filter 856 disposed betweensensor 852 and radiation 870, 874, and 872. Filter 856 may be describedas a passband filter for IR light, but not passing visible light, suchas to pass IR light from incandescent bulbs and fluorescent bulb, aswell as radiation 870 and 874, but not to pass visible light fromincandescent bulbs and fluorescent bulb. Thus, sensor 852 may detectelectromagnetic radiation from radiation 870, radiation 874, and/orambient IR radiation from radiation 872, but may not receive or sensevisible light from radiation 872.

Logic 830 may modulate the emitter IR light and/or to turn the emitteron and off. The IR light from radiation 872 may be filtered out ordistinguished from the output of sensor 852 by logic 830. Distinguishingthe emitted IR from ambient IR by detecting for emitted IR during onetime period and for ambient IR during another may be described as TDM,timeslicing and multiplexing, and/or using a waveform filter. Detector824 and/or logic 830 may be used to sense proximity of the object tocombined sensor 820, and may determine a visible light intensity ofambient radiation 872.

The term “substantially” may refer to the specific value noted herein,or, in some cases, a range within 1, 2 or 5 percent of that value. Theterms “processing logic” as described herein may describe a device, aprocessor, circuitry, software, a memory, and/or a combination of any orall of the above. Similarly, the term “sensor” may include the abovedescriptions for processing logic. Also, use of the term “detect” andderivations therefrom may be similar to that described herein for use ofthe term “sense” and derivations thereof, and vice versa.

It will be appreciated that at least some of the sensors which are usedwith embodiments of the inventions may determine or provide data whichrepresents an analog value. In other words, the data represents a valuewhich can be any one of a set of possible values which can varycontinuously or substantially continuously, rather than being discretevalues which have quantum, discrete jumps from one value to the nextvalue. Further, the value represented by the data may not bepredetermined. For example, a light sensor, such as an ambient lightsensor, may determine or provide data that represents a light intensitywhich is an analog value. For other types of sensors, the datadetermined or provided by the sensor may represent an analog value.

Moreover, it can be appreciated that at least certain embodiments of thesensors described herein may provide proximity and/or ALS data (e.g.,light levels) to a processor or processing logic of an electronicdevice, a display device, a data processing device, or a data processingsystem. This may include sending proximity sensor output data (e.g., todetect a proximity of an object) and/or ALS output level or value data(e.g., to identify an ambient light environment or level of visiblelight intensity, such as incident upon an ALS and/or display device) toa software application (e.g., instructions executing on a processor).Reference to a “device”, an “electronic device”, a “portable device”, “adata processing system”, a “date processing device” or a “system” hereinmay describe a portable device (such as a cellular phone, lap-topcomputer or other device having the functionality of a cellular phone,touch input screen, media player (e.g., audio such as MP-3, and/orvideo), personal digital assistant, and/or Internet browser, or a devicedescribed for FIGS. 2-11), non-portable device (such as a desktopcomputer), or a processor or software application (e.g., instructionsexecuted by a processor) of the device referred to. Thus, the softwareor processor can determine, based upon the data, whether to modify asetting of the device or data processing system. For instance, theprocessor, software or processing logic may compare the data from one ormore ALS outputs to a threshold value to determine a light value (e.g.,amount of visible light). Specifically, the comparison may be used todetermine when and by how much to modify (e.g., by adjusting,increasing, decreasing, turning on, turning off, or leaving status quo)at least one setting or display control parameter of a displayilluminator or device (e.g., a backlight) as described herein. Forinstance, at least one setting or display control parameter may bemodified sufficiently to cause the display to have a backlightbrightness and/or contrast high enough to allow a user to see andidentify text, images, and/or video displayed on the display. Forinstance, the following descriptions, apply to displays and backlightsdescribed herein.

As noted above, the display (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD))and/or backlight of the display device may represent one of the largestbattery draws or drains of a portable device and may also represent asignificant power drain for a non-portable device. In these cases, thebrighter the backlight, the more battery energy or power is consumedmaintaining the bright level of backlight. Thus, in some embodiments, itmay be beneficial to reduce the effect or amount of battery draw ordrain that the backlight of the display device has on the battery.However, it may be desired to have a bright or high contrast backlightduring periods to overcome a bright ambient light environment, or whendesired by a user to maintain the backlight brightness or high contrast.Thus, to extend battery life and reduce battery draw, it may be helpfulto only drive or use display or backlight brightness (e.g., intensity orillumination) or contrast at a maximum level or value high enough toovercome the ambient light environment at the user, device, or incidentupon the display. For example, in some cases, if the user if outdoors inthe sun, a bright or increased backlight brightness or high contrast maybe more desirable or useful (such as to see text, images, and/or videodisplayed on the display) than if the user is in a brightly lit room orsoftly lit room.

According to embodiments, a display device of the electronic device maybe “operated” by illuminating (e.g., generating, altering (or causingnot to be altered), causing, controlling, or displaying) a backlight(e.g., a level of brightness and/or contrast of the backlight or overalldisplay) of the display device based on or considering a user input,setting (or change thereof) and/or an ambient light sensor output. FIGS.9-11, without limitation thereto, give examples of embodiments of suchoperations and control. In some embodiments, based on a received userinput, setting (or change thereof) and/or based on data acquired by oneor more ambient light sensors, a digital processing system (e.g., anelectronic device) may (automatically in some cases) activate,deactivate, change, control (e.g., cause or alter (or to cause not to bealtered) an effect of an ALS value on control of a display controlparameter), and/or alter one or more display control parameters of abacklight, such as according to an algorithm implemented by a softwareapplication. For instance, a backlight may have various “display controlparameters” such as physical brightness level, contrast level, gammalevel, and color calibration levels. These levels may be selected,controlled (e.g., by causing or altering an effect of an ALS value oncontrol of a display control parameter), requested and/or set accordingto a user input, setting or level (or change thereof). In addition,these parameters may be set, altered, or controlled by sensor outputs,which may be weighted based on or according to the user setting orselection. Specifically, an electronic device may receive a user inputor setting (or change thereof) of a display control parameter and maycause or alter, based on the user input or setting (or change thereof),an affect of a light sensor value on control of the same or a differentdisplay control parameter. As a result, the device may set or alter(e.g., by changing, controlling, or adjusting) the display controlparameter based on (e.g., according to, caused by, or due to) the userinput or setting (or change thereof) and the ALS value (or changethereof). Moreover, the ALS value may be a weighted value, weightedbased on or according to the received user setting or selection. Theamount of weighting may be described as an ALS weight to the ALS value.

The parameter may be altered automatically, such as by a device, aprocessor, and/or software. Alternatively the parameter may be alterednon-automatically, such as by receiving a user selection to cause thealteration. For instance, upon determining that an alteration is to bemade, the device, processor, and/or software may prompt the user toconfirm or select the alteration. Upon receipt of the user confirmationor selection, the alteration occurs (e.g., it is optional until userselection). In some embodiment, without limitation thereto, an ALS,setting, or environment “level”, “output”, “value”, or “reading” may beused synonymously, such as when referring to ambient light. It can beappreciated that in other embodiments, those terms may not bysynonymous.

Ambient light level data may be provided by an ambient light sensor,which indicates the level of light intensity surrounding that sensor.Ambient light data may also be obtained from two or more ambient lightsensors, which are disposed at different positions on the device. Anadjustable backlight brightness may be provided by altering thebacklight brightness based on or according to the output of one or morethan one ALS on the electronic device. The number of outputs may beweighted depending on or based on the location of each sensor on thedevice. For example, one ambient light sensor may be on one side of thedevice, and another ambient light sensor may be on another side of thedevice. ALS sensor on the face of the device pointing at the user(and/or away from a display) may be given a higher weight as it or theybest represent light falling directly on the display or a cover of thedisplay. For example, see sensors 44, 44 a, 62, 84 of FIGS. 2-5Arespectively. Alternatively, sensors facing the ground may be givenlower weights, as they face away from light incident upon the display.For example, these sensors may be sensors on a surface opposite that onwhich sensors 44, 44 a, 62, 84 are mounted or disposed, of FIGS. 2-5Arespectively. Sensors not pointing at the user, away from a display, ortoward the ground may be given a weight between a weight given to asensor pointing at the user (and/or away from a display) and a sensorpointing toward the ground. For example, these sensors may be sensors ona surface sideways or perpendicular to that on which sensors 44, 44 a,62, 84 are mounted or disposed, of FIGS. 2-5A respectively. It is alsoconsidered that the definition of where a sensor is pointing may changedue to the orientation, sliding, opening, or closing of a portion of anelectronic device. For instance, in FIG. 5A (e.g., when the device isopen or on), sensor 84 may be pointing at the user, while a sensor on asurface opposite that on which sensors 84 is mounted (e.g., sensors 84Aand 92) may be pointing toward the ground. Alternatively, in FIG. 5B(e.g., when the device is closed or off), sensor 84A may be pointing atthe user, while a sensor on a surface opposite that on which sensors 84Aand 92 are mounted may be pointing toward the ground. In this case,sensor 84 is pointing towards in interior surface of the device and maynot be considered or may have a zero weight.

According to some embodiments, a backlight brightness level of a displaymay be determined according to, or by considering 1) ambient lightsensor data; 2) the percentage of overall control or weight the ambientlight sensor data has on the brightness; and 3) a user requested systembacklight level. In addition, the electronic device settings or mode mayalso have an affect on the brightness of the backlight level.

According to embodiments, the display control parameter depends on(e.g., is controlled by, is related to, considers, or is according) toboth the ALS weight and the ALS value (e.g., a multiple of the weightand value). The display control parameter may or may not be offset ordepend on (e.g., be weighted by) a constant.

FIG. 9A is a graph showing examples of ambient light sensor (ALS) weightranges versus user selected brightness range according to a linearrelationship. For instance, in some embodiments, the ALS value is onlyallowed to control a maximum percent of the display control parameter(e.g., of a physical brightness and/or contrast level). This may be aninstance where it is desired to not let the display control parameterdrop below 75%. This example can be represented by line 910 of FIG. 9A.Line 910 shows that where the user selects a brightness of 1.0 or 100% ,the ALS weight is not a factor in the display control parameter, but asthe user selected brightness decreases, the weight increases up tohaving a 25% affect on altering the display control parameter. Forinstance, a display control parameter resulting from implementing line910 may be generalized as equation (a):

display control parameter=K+(ALS weight×ALS value)   (a)

Here, the display control parameter is constant K plus (ALS weight timesALS value). Some cases consider that the ALS output weight may beinversely related to a range of the user selected brightness levelincrease. Moreover, this relationship may be proportional or linear(e.g., wherein a range of the ambient light sensor output weight islinearly inversely proportional to a range of the user selectedbrightness level).

Also, the ALS weight and user brightness may be each normalized (e.g.,providing an user brightness value and an ALS weight in a range between0 and 1.0). These normalized values may be based on a received usersetting, input or selected brightness level, such as shown for FIG. 9A.For instance, in the example above, according to equation (a), theconstant K is 75%, the maximum ALS weight is 25%. Thus, depending on theALS value, the display control parameter will change between 75% and100%, increasing linearly as the ALS value increases. For example, inthe brightest sunlight where the ALS value is 1.0, the parameter will be100% (e.g., in an ambient light environment of bright sunlight).Alternatively, in an ambient light environment within a dark room (e.g.,a softly lit room) where the ALS value is 0.2, the parameter will be80%. Thus, the ALS weight may be described as an affect, scaling,factor, control or adjustment of the light sensor value on the displaycontrol parameter. Notably, the display control parameter may be aphysical brightness level of a backlight of a display, and the usersetting may be a requested physical brightness level of the backlight.

Although line 910 is shown decreasing from the maximum weight percent tozero, it is considered that the line may have a greater negative slopeor be shifted down. For instance, although the weight value has amaximum along the graph axis, the minimum may be at a percent of userselected brightness less than 100%, and the line may have the same slopeas shown (thus the maximum weight value is less than shown for thatline) or may have a more negative slope (for the same maximum weightvalue). Line 910 is shown as a straight line, but it can be appreciatedthat a curved or less than linear relationship can be used in place of910, where the weight is inversely related to the user selectedbrightness level, but not in a linear relationship.

Also, in some cases, the display parameter or physical brightness levelis multiplied by a system requested backlight level, such as a levelrequested by the device, processor, or application due to factors otherthan the user setting, ALS level, and ALS weight. For example, thesystem requested level may be a device setting for the display of afully bright level (e.g., 100% brightness device setting), a dimmeddisplay level (e.g., 10% of brightness for the display setting), or anoff display level (e.g., 0% brightness device setting) requested orselected by the device, processor, or application due to an output of adifferent sensor. Specifically, a proximity sensor and/or light sensorsmay indicate that the device is closed, off, not being used, in apocket, or next to a person's face or ear. Thus, the off display levelmay be selected. Alternatively, the device may have been idle or notused for a period of time after which the dimmed display is selected. Bymultiplying the parameter of equation (a) by the 10% dimmed level, thedimming would now be an 8%, backlight level. Alternatively, at the 100%level, the parameter of equation (a) would be the brightness level, andat an off display level, there would be 0% brightness regardless ofequation (a).

According to embodiments, a system requested level or device settingaffecting the backlight brightness or a display parameter may be relatedto a type of application executing on the device and/or being displayingon the display device. For example, a type of application (andrespective brightness) may include primarily textual content display(low), primarily image or picture content display (high), primarilyvideo content display (high), primarily color content display(normal/middle), and/or primarily black and white content display (low).A combination of these types is also considered, such as where therespective brightness may be an aggregate depending on the typesincluded (e.g., black and white text uses a lower brightness thanimages, video, or a color display).

Further refinements include considering adjusting how much maximumcontrol the ALS value can have on brightness. For example, line 920shows an instance where the maximum amount of control is 15%. Thus, theALS can adjust the brightness between 85% and 100%. Other than the 15%control change, the description above with respect to line 910 appliesto line 920 and a control parameter, brightness, user setting, ALS valueand ALS weight apply.

Thus, if the device receives a higher overall backlight level input orrequest from the user, the amount of control the ALS has on the finalbacklight level is decreased. Alternatively, if the device receives alower level setting or request from the user, the ALS level is givenmore control to provide the user with a backlight level only high enoughto allow the user to see the display image or text, thus conservingbattery life. In other words, as shown in FIG. 9A, a change in the usersetting or selected brightness causes a change in the ALS weight, whichalters an affect of the ALS value on controlling (e.g., altering,changing or adjusting) the display control parameter or brightness.Consequently, the application or processor may cause the display deviceto display the physical brightness level of the backlight according toor based on the display control parameter or as described herein.Specifically, the backlight physical brightness will be based on theuser selected brightness level, the ambient light sensor weight, and theambient light sensor value, where a change in the user selectedbrightness level causes a change in the ambient light sensor outputweight. Thus, the brightness level may be altered based on a change inthe weight, in the ambient light sensor output level, in the userselected brightness level, and/or in a device setting for the display.

According to some embodiments, the relationship between the ALS weightand the user selected brightness may not be linear, such as for arelationship that has a higher weight between the ends of the userselectable range. For example, Figure 9B shows an example of an ALSweight range versus user selected brightness range according to a “bell”shaped curve relationship. FIG. 9B shows “bell” shaped curve 930, whichmay be a Gaussian shaped curve, representing the altering of the ALSweight caused by changes in the user selected brightness level. In FIG.9B the user selected brightness range includes low end 940, middleportion 950, and high end 960. Also, ALS weight range goes from 10% to50%, as compared to where the ALS weight range in FIG. 9A, for line 910,only goes to 25%. It can be appreciated that FIG. 9B gradually assignsless weight as the selected brightness moves in either direction awayfrom center 50% brightness or middle portion 950. It can also beappreciated that while curve 930 shows a specific shape, the valuesselected for the low end, middle portion, and high end may be altered,as long as the middle portion ALS weight is greater than that at the lowend and high end. For example, the values at the low end, middleportion, and high end could all be increased or decreased, or increasedand decreased with respect to each other. For example, the curve may besimply shifted up or down, or the ends of the curve may be increased ordecreased while the middle portion stays the same, and/or the middleportion may be increased or decreased. For example, a less or morepronounced curve may be implanted. In addition, although curve 930 has apeak at the 50% user brightness, it can be appreciated that the curvecan be shifted to the left or right with respect to user brightness.

According to embodiments, the backlight brightness of a display dependson, is controlled by, is related to, considers, or is according to theuser selected brightness, ALS weight and the ALS value (e.g., a multipleof the weight and value, plus the user selected brightness). Thebrightness may or may not depend on the user selected brightness times(1-ALS weight), where the weight is normalized.

The physical brightness level resulting from implementing curve 930 maybe generalized by normalizing the ALS value (e.g., providing an ALSvisible light value in a range between 0 and 1.0, such as describedabove for implementing equation (a)) as equation (b):

brightness=(ALS value×ALS weight)+(user brightness×(1−ALS weight))   (b)

where the ALS weight and user brightness (e.g., user selectedbrightness) are also normalized (e.g., providing an user brightnessvalue and an ALS weight in a range between 0 and 1.0, based on areceived user setting, input or selected brightness level, such as shownin FIG. 9B). The result is the ALS value has less of an affect onbrightness as the ALS weight diminishes, at the low end and high end ofthe user selected brightness, as compared to the middle portion.

FIG. 9C shows examples of device physical brightness level ranges versusALS output level range for a “bell” shaped curve relationship betweenALS weight and user selected brightness. Specifically, for the example,of curve 930, FIG. 9C shows line 970 representing a user selectedbrightness of 1.0, such as near high end 960 of FIG. 9B. FIG. 9C alsoshows line 980 representing device brightness for the user selectedbrightness of 0.5 or half of the maximum. Also, FIG. 9C shows line 990representing a user selected brightness of 0.1 or 10% of the maximumbrightness. It can be appreciated that line 970 has the greatest devicebrightness as the user has selected the maximum brightness and variesonly by 10% corresponding to the 10% ALS weight of FIG. 9B at high end960. Similarly, line 990 has the lowest device brightness as the userhas selected the minimum brightness, and varies by only 10% according tothe ALS weight at low end 940 of FIG. 9B. However, for line 980, thedevice brightness is between line 970 and 990, but has a wide range of50% change in device brightness with ALS levels as indicated by the ALSweight at the 0.5 user brightness in FIG. 9B. In the case shown in FIGS.9B and 9C, when the user selects a very dim brightness, the change dueto ALS levels is minimal, which may provide the advantage of allowingthe user to extend the battery life by selecting a low brightness.Alternatively, for the highest user selected brightness, the change indevice brightness effect by the ALS level may also be minimal to providethe user the advantage of being able to keep the backlight bright inorder to have the maximum opportunity to view the content on thedisplayed device. Alternatively, allowing a greater change in the affector weight of the ALS value on the device brightness between the ends ofthe user selected brightness, may allow the advantage of providingextended battery by letting the device, processor, or software minimizethe brightness of the display backlight to only overcome the ambientlight environment.

The use of the term “range” may represent a range of values, weights, orlevels described herein. In some cases, the relationship between an ALSweight range and an ALS level range (or value range) may be aproportional, linear, inverse, “bell” shaped curve, and/or Gaussianshaped curved relationship between the weights and values (or levels)(e.g., see FIGS. 9A-9C).

Additional information about proximity sensors can be found in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 11/241,839, titled “PROXIMITY DETECTOR INHANDHELD DEVICE,” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/240,788,titled “PROXIMITY DETECTOR IN HANDHELD DEVICE;” U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/165,958, titled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR REMOTELYDETECTING PRESENCE,” filed Jun. 23, 2005; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,583,676,titled “PROXIMITY/TOUCH DETECTOR AND CALIBRATION CIRCUIT,” issued Jun.24, 2003; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/600,344, filed Nov.15, 2006 titled “INTEGRATED PROXIMITY SENSOR AND LIGHT SENSOR” which areall incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Moreover, according to embodiments, the ALS value or intensity mayrepresent the value or intensity for a plurality of ALS sensors. Forexample, the device, processor, or software application may receive anumber of ambient light sensor output levels from a number of sensors.As noted above, the number of outputs may be weighted depending on orbased on the location of each sensor on the device. For example, an ALSsensor on the face of the device pointing at the user may be given ahigher weight as it may best represent light falling directly on thedisplay or a cover of the display. Alternatively, sensors facing theground may be given lower weights, as they face away from light incidentupon the display. The multiple sensor outputs are then each multipliedby their weighting factor (e.g., scaled) and added together to representa total ambient light falling on the entire device. That total ambientlight is then normalized to come up with a number from 0 to 1, with 1representing full sunlight and 0 representing total darkness (e.g., anda lighted room between 1 and 0, with a brightly lit room above a softlyor darkly lit room). Thus, it is contemplated that the descriptionsherein with respect to an ALS light value apply to the normalized valuefor multiple ALS sensors, as described herein, such as where the ALSoutput level or value (e.g., for ambient visible light) is set to anaggregate of the weighted ALS outputs.

Also, according to some embodiments, a display contrast output level(e.g., display control parameters) can be (automatically in some cases)altered according to a change or alteration (automatically or not) of adisplay brightness output level and/or an ALS output level. For example,the contrast level may be an output level to a display and may be basedon the display brightness output level as well as on an ALS outputlevel. Thus, in some cases, a change in either or both of the displaybrightness level and the ALS output level causes a corresponding orrelated change in the contrast output level. It can be appreciated thatthe contrast output level and brightness output level are both output tothe same display, such as being components of a backlight of a display.Moreover, in some cases, an increase in the display brightness outputlevel may automatically cause a decrease in the display contrast outputlevel, such as according to a linear or non-linear inverse relationship.Also, an increase in the sensor output level may automatically cause anincrease in the display contrast output level, such as according to alinear or non-linear relationship. Thus, if the sensor output levelstays the same, and the brightness level increases, the contrast levelwill decrease. Alternatively, if the brightness level stays the same andthe output level increases, the contrast level may increase. It can alsobe appreciated that if the brightness level increases and the sensoroutput level increases, to cause an equal alteration or change in thecontrast level, the result is no change in the contrast level, as theincrease and decrease will counteract each other. Finally, it can beappreciated that descriptions herein with respect to the displaybrightness output level and ALS output level being received by a device,processor, or software apply to the discussion with respect to thecontrast output level embodiment. Similarly, the discussions herein withrespect to a machine accessible medium, and instructions executed on amachine or processor apply to the contrast output level embodimentabove. Also, the display output level (e.g., change), ALS output level(e.g., change), and/or display contrast output level (e.g., change) maybe stored in a memory or storage device. Finally, the concepts hereinwith respect setting, changing, causing, altering, etc. a displaycontrol parameter (e.g., a physical brightness level of a touch inputscreen), such as based on user inputs (or settings) and ALS levels(values or changes) can be applied to setting, changing, causing,altering, etc. a contrast level (e.g., of a touch input screen),including such as noted above.

FIG. 10 shows another example of a device according to embodiments ofthe inventions. This device 400 may include a processor, such asmicroprocessor 402, and a memory 404 (e.g., a storage device), which arecoupled to each other through a bus 406. The device 400 may optionallyinclude a cache 408 which is coupled to the microprocessor 402. Thisdevice may also optionally include a display controller and displaydevice 410 which is coupled to the other components through the bus 406.One or more input/output controllers 412 are also coupled to the bus 406to provide an interface for input/output devices 414 (e.g., userinterface controls or input devices) and to provide an interface for oneor more sensors 416 which are for sensing user activity. The bus 406 mayinclude one or more buses connected to each other through variousbridges, controllers, and/or adapters as is well known in the art. Theinput/output devices 414 may include a keypad or keyboard or a cursorcontrol device such as a touch input panel. In some cases, devices 414may use or include display device 410, such as where display device 410is a touch input screen for receiving user inputs and/or settings.Furthermore, the input/output devices 414 may include a networkinterface which is either for a wired network or a wireless network(e.g. an RF transceiver). The sensors 416 may be any one of the sensorsdescribed herein including, for example, a proximity sensor or anambient light sensor. In at least certain implementations of the device400, the microprocessor 402 may receive data from one or more sensors416, input/output devices 414 (e.g., and/or display device 410) and mayperform the analysis of and act based on that data in the mannerdescribed herein. For example, the data may be analyzed through anartificial intelligence process or in the other ways described herein.As a result of that analysis, the microprocessor 402 may then(automatically in some cases) cause an adjustment of or set one or moresettings of the device.

According to some embodiments input/output devices 414 (e.g., and/ordisplay device 410) may include unlock input 424, power-on input 444,and/or wake input 434. Input 424, 444 and/or 434 may be a mediaselection device, or input device as described herein such as byincluding, for example, one or more buttons, switches, dials, sliders,keys or keypad, navigation pads, touch pads, touch screens, inputportions or zones of touch screens, and the like.

For example, input 424 may be a slide button and switch having twopositions, which are “lock” and “unlock”. The locked position may causetouch screen inputs such as those described for display/input device 54of FIG. 4 to be ignored or to not cause any effect or input to a displaydevice such as display 54 or a portable device such as device 50. In theunlocked position input 424 may unlock a display device (e.g., device414 and/or 410) from a locked state to an unlocked state, the lockedstate prohibiting the display device from receiving inputs from a touchscreen of the display device, and the unlocked state allowing thedisplay device to receive inputs from the touch screen.

Also, wake input 434 may be any of one or more buttons or zones,portions, or points of a multi-point touch input screen or touch screensuch as device 54, input/output devices 414 (e.g., and/or display device410). The wake button may cause a display device such as device 54and/or a portable device such as device 50 or 400 to come out of a“sleep” or “inactivity dim” state or status. In the wake position input434 may wake a display device (e.g., device 414 and/or 410),automatically causing a brightness level of the display device to becomebrighter (and optionally, also causing an unlocked state allowing thedisplay device to receive inputs from the touch screen. In some cases,wake input 434 may be a tap on a touch screen or input screen or apressing of a button. For instance, “inactivity dim” may refer to a lowbacklight brightness level that is not sufficient to allow a user to seeand identify text, images, and/or video displayed on the display. Thislow level may be aimed at consuming less power over time than anidentifiable brightness so that power will be conserved.

It can be appreciated that the words “dark” and “darker” (e.g., lessbright or a lower brightness level) may be interchanged with the words“dim” and “dimmer” in certain situations.

FIG. 10 also shows power-on input 444, which may be a power-on button,“home” button (e.g., to immediately return to the home or main menu), orother input to cause the power to a display device or portable device tobe turned on. In some cases, input 444 may also be used to turn thedevice off. Although inputs 424, 434, and 444 are shown coupled todevices 414, they may be part of devices 414. It can also be appreciatedthat in the situation where inputs 424, 434, and/or 444 are inputs froma touch screen, they may be part of device 410 or coupled to device 410.

In some embodiments, device 400 may be a device similar to portabledevice 50 or another device having most (e.g., at least 70%, 75% , 80%or 90%) or all of one of its larger surfaces (e.g., planar surfaces)including or being a touch screen or display/input device such as device50, device 54, a portable device, an electronic device (e.g., device100), and/or a display device. For instance, device 400 may have thefunctionality of a cellular phone, touch screen, media player (e.g.,audio such as MP-3, and/or video), portable computer, personal digitalassistant, and/or Internet browser.

FIG. 11 is a process for operating a display device. FIG. 11 showsprocess 1100 such as a process for operating a display device, anelectronic device or a portable device (such as device 50, 54, 100,and/or 400); or a device as shown in or described for FIGS. 2, 3, 4, 5A,and 5B. Also, blocks of process 1100 may describe an event, state,status, action, or result that may be stored in a medium or memoryand/or may be input to, received by, caused by, or resulting fromexecution of a machine accessible medium.

At block 1105 the device (e.g., display device or a electronic device)is powered on, such as by detecting or receiving a user input receivedin response to a user activating a power-on input, such as input 444and/or a power-on button or “home” button. At block 1105 the device or adisplay or touch screen or input screen of the device may be locked(e.g., to turn of a touch screen input to avoid erroneous inputs) suchthat input to the device is not possible until the device is unlocked.Specifically, at block 1105 the device may be in a “on” state as aresult of a power on event, and may be in a locked stated or status.

Moreover, at block 1105, the display device (e.g., such as a touchscreen input of a portable device) may cause a “power-on” display to bedisplayed. The power-on display may be an emblem, trademark, or otherinsignia, image, or text to identify to the user that the device hasbeen powered on, but may remain locked. Moreover, a display controlparameter, such as a backlight brightness or brightness level of thedisplay may be equal to or based on a user selected brightness, apredetermined brightness, or a combination of the two. For example, apredetermined default brightness (e.g., for a lock or a wake threshold)may be 50% of the maximum brightness level for the display, which may bemodified by a user selected brightness setting.

At decision block 1110, it is determined whether the display device hasentered and inactivity dim. Block 1110 may include a timer starting orcounting time to determine whether an amount of time has exceeded apredetermined threshold or period of time. If the count of time by thecounter exceeds the threshold or period of time, the device may enterinactivity dim. The time out period or period of time described forblock 1110 may be more or less than a minute or two, such as by being 30seconds. When the display device enters an inactivity dim, the displaydevice may be dimmed or caused to become a predetermined brightness.Examples of such predetermined brightness, without limitation thereto,may be equal to or less than 5% or 10% of the maximum brightness of thedisplay while the device is in inactivity dim state. For example, aninactivity time out event may occur which causes the device to enterinactivity dim state or status (e.g., to save power). If the displaydevice enters inactivity dim at block 1110, processing continues toblock 1145.

Alternatively, if at block 1110 the device does not enter inactivitydim, processing continues to block 1115 where it is determined whetherthe display device is unlocked. For example, during the threshold orperiod of time of block 1110, it may be determined whether or not thedevice is unlocked at block 1115. If the device is not unlocked, thetimer of block 1110 continues to count.

At block 1115, the device may be unlocked by detection or receipt of anunlock input such as input 424 or another input to cause an unlock ofthe display device, such as resulting from a user activating an unlockinput or button. At block 1115, an unlock event may cause the displaydevice (e.g., touch input screen) to go from a locked state or status toan unlocked state or status, such as to allow the display device toreceive input or to be used as a touch screen or touch input to provideinput to the display device or a portable device. Block 1115 may includereceiving a user input (e.g., user activation) of a display controlparameter, such as of display control parameter unlock input 424. Thatinput may cause an effect of ALS value on control of another displaycontrol parameter, such as on control of a backlight brightness orbrightness display control parameter of the display device. For example,that input may cause blocks 1120, 1125, and/or 1128 to occur or beperformed.

If at block 1115 the device is not unlocked (e.g., is unlocked),processing returns to block 1110.

If at block 1115 the device is unlocked, processing continues to block1120. At block 1120, it is determined whether an environment that thedisplay device is exposed to or in (e.g., is incident upon the device)is brighter or darker than a lock threshold. Block 1120 may includereceiving and/or comparing one or more ALS outputs or readings to one ormore predetermined thresholds or predetermined threshold ranges.

For example, block 1120 (or block 1115) may include an ALS takingreadings and providing output of ambient light measurements, levelsand/or changes. Those levels or changes may be received, and compared toone or more lock thresholds.

It can be appreciated the description above for multiple ALSs applieshere as well (and optionally for blocks 1130 and/or 1150). For example,at block 1120 (and optionally for blocks 1130 and/or 1150) the output ofmultiple sensors can be summed together and unified to be compared toone or more thresholds.

For example, at block 1120, the lock threshold may be a single number orlevel, or may be a range of numbers or levels. The lock threshold may bea number or range based on a predetermined default brightness (e.g., 50%of the maximum brightness level for the display), which may be modifiedby a user selected brightness setting (e.g., an increase or decrease by0-50 percent to provide a range from 0% of the maximum brightness to100% of the maximum brightness).

Thus, at block 1120 the environment may be brighter than the threshold,darker than the threshold, or neither (e.g., in the case the environmentis at or within the lock threshold). If at block 1120 the environment iswithin the lock threshold, processing continues to block 1130.Alternatively, if at block 1120 the environment is brighter than thelock threshold, processing continues to block 1125. Moreover, if atblock 1120 the environment is darker than the lock threshold, processingcontinues to block 1128.

Examples of the lock threshold, without limitation thereto, may includea 50% of the maximum display device brightness threshold, where a rangecentered around 50%, such as a range between 40 and 60%. Moreover, block1115 may include a gradual or smooth transition of the brightness fromthe brightness described at block 1105 to the brightness described atblock 1125, 1120 (e.g., in the instance that the environment is at orwithin the lock threshold), or block 1128. For example, the transitionmay occur over a period of time less than a second, such as a period of0.25 seconds, such as to appear smooth. Moreover, during thistransition, the display may display various images, video, animation,etc. to provide information to and/or cause the transition of brightnessto be less noticeable by the user. At the end of this transition period,a “home” screen may be displayed on the display device.

According to some embodiments, block 1120 may include receiving and/orconsidering one or more ALS readings (e.g., levels) or outputs over aperiod of time, such as by comparing those readings or an average ofthose readings to the threshold. If the averages of the readings or allof the readings are greater than or less than the threshold, then theenvironment may be considered brighter or darker.

At block 1125, the display device is caused to become brighter. Forexample, block 1125 may include increasing the backlight brightness orbrightness level of a display device, touch screen, or touch inputdevice. Block 1125 may also describe increasing a screen brightness tocause a screen to become brighter, or causing a result of the input atblock 1115 on an effect of an ALS value on control of the displaycontrol parameter of the display brightness. Block 1125 may include thatif the ALS value at block 1120 is greater than a lock threshold,automatically causing, based on the ALS value, an increase in thedisplay control parameter. The increase may be to a physical brightnesslevel sufficient to allow a user to see and identify text, images,and/or video displayed on the display in the current ambient lightenvironment.

At block 1128, the display device is caused to become dimmer. Forexample, block 1128 may include decreasing the backlight brightness orbrightness level of a display device, touch screen, or touch inputdevice. Block 1128 may also describe decreasing a screen brightness tocause a screen to become dimmer, or causing a result of the input atblock 1115 on an effect of an ALS value on control of the displaycontrol parameter of the display brightness. Block 1125 may include thatif the ALS value at block 1120 is less than the lock threshold,automatically causing, based on the ALS value, a decrease in the displaycontrol parameter. The decrease may be to a physical brightness levelsufficient to allow a user to see and identify text, images, and/orvideo displayed on the display in the current ambient light environment.

Causing the display device to become brighter at block 1128 may be asmooth transition over time, such as described above for block 1125.

After blocks 1125 or 1128, processing to block 1130. At block 1130 it isdetermined if the environment has transitioned over a brighter or darkertransition threshold. Block 1130 may include determining whether anenvironment or setting that the display device or portable device isexposed to or that is incident upon the device has an ambient lightbrightness change that exceeds the transition threshold. For example,block 1130 may include receiving an ALS value change that exceeds apredetermined threshold for a predetermined period of time. Similar tothe discussion above for block 1120, block 1130 may include receiving anumber of ALS readings or outputs over time and comparing those readingsor outputs to one or more predetermined threshold values. In some cases,each value may be compared to the threshold, such as to ensure that eachvalue exceeds the threshold for a period of time. Alternatively, anaverage of the values over the period of time may be compared to thethreshold. Block 1130 may include considering outputs from one or moreALSs, such as described above for block 1120.

A period of time considered for determining whether a transition hasoccurred at block 1130 may be between 1 and 10 seconds, such as by beinga period of 5 seconds. In some cases, during this period of time, theALS readings or environment must continue to be beyond a brighter ordarker transition threshold for the transition to brighter or darker tooccur. Thus, if any value or reading does not exceed one or the other ofthose thresholds, processing will continue to block 1140.

At block 1135 the display device is caused to become brighter. Block1135 may include the descriptions above with respect to block 1125.Moreover, block 1135 may include causing a change that is greater thanor based on a transition in block 1130 greater than the transitionthreshold. Thus, block 1135 may include at least a certain increase inbrightness based on or proportional to the transition threshold. Causingthe display device to become brighter at block 1135 may be a smoothtransition over time, such as described above for block 1125. Moreover,the increase in brightness may include that the transition is greaterthan the transition threshold. For example, block 1135 may includeincreasing the brightness by an amount proportional to the transitionthreshold as well as an additional increase proportional to the amountthat the environment has transitioned over the threshold. The increasemay be to a physical brightness level sufficient to allow a user to seeand identify text, images, and/or video displayed on the display in thecurrent ambient light environment.

For example, if prior to block 1130, the environment was at a 50%environment maximum brightness, and transitions to a 95% of maximumenvironment brightness, at block 1135 the display device would be causedto become brighter by the difference of 45% of maximum environmentbrightness (presuming the display is capable of such a level), eventhough the transition threshold may only be 25%. Alternatively, if thenew environment is at only 60% of the maximum environment brightness, atblock 1130 the processing would not exceed a 25% transition thresholdand would continue to block 1140. Block 1135 may include that if thechange at block 1130 is an increase, altering, based on the ALS valuechange, an effect of the ALS value change on control of the displaycontrol parameter of display brightness, such as by causing a screen ordisplay brightness of a display device, touch screen or input screen tobecome brighter.

If at block 1130 the environment has transitioned over a darkerthreshold, processing continues to block 1138. The darker transitionthreshold may be the same threshold in magnitude as that described fortransitioning to block 1135, but may be with respect to the environmentbecoming darker or dimmer. In some cases, there may be not darkerthreshold (and there may be no change in display brightness). Accordingto embodiments, at block 1138, the display device brightness is notchanged (e.g., is not caused or altered based on an ALS value orchange), but stays at the same brightness it was at for block 1130.Block 1138 may include not altering, based on an ALS value change, aneffect of the ALS value change on control of a display parameter, suchas a brightness level of a display, touch screen, or touch input. One ofthe benefits of block 1138, without limitation thereto, may be that itis easier for a user to read, use, and/or provide input to a screen thatdoes not or is not transitioning from brighter to darker, even thoughthe environment may become darker. Specifically, at block 1138 thephysical brightness level (e.g, when not changed) may be sufficient toallow a user to see and identify text, images, and/or video displayed onthe display in the current ambient light environment.

In addition, another benefit may be that not changing the brightness atblock 1138 reduces a cycle of decreasing and then increasing brightnesswhen the environment is cycling from darker to brighter, darker tobrighter, etc., such as to reduce eye strain or make using and viewingthe display device more comfortable to a user.

At block 1140 it is determined whether the display device has enteredinactivity dim. Block 1140 may include descriptions above for block 1110(e.g., enter dim after a period of time, such as 30 seconds), with theexception that the display device may not be in the locked state and/orshowing an initial screen, but may be displaying video, images, texts,etc. as described herein in an unlocked state. Thus, at block 1140, ifthe display is not entering an inactivity state, processing may returnto block 1130 to determine whether the brightness of the display deviceneed be adjusted such as described for block 1135 or 1138. Thus, in someembodiments, processing of blocks 1130, 1135, 1138, and 1140 may beaccording to descriptions herein as described above for FIGS. 1-10and/or as described below, such as where ALS weight, user brightness,ALS level, and device brightness are described as noted in FIGS. 9A-9C.If at block 1140 the display enters inactivity dim, processing continuesto block 1145.

At block 1145 it is determined whether the display device has been wokenor awakened. Block 1145 may include waking the display device from aninactive dim state (e.g., see block 1110), such as by receiving a userinput of display control parameter wake input 434. Input 434 may beactivated by a user to wake the display from inactivity dim state. Thatinput may cause an effect of ALS value on control of another displaycontrol parameter, such as on control of a backlight brightness orbrightness display control parameter of the display device. For example,that input may cause blocks 1150, 1155, and/or 1158 to occur or beperformed.

If at block 1145 the screen is not woken, processing continues to block1160. At block 1160 it is determined whether the display enters lock.Block 1160 may include receiving a user input, such as described abovefor block 1115, but to cause the screen to become locked. For example, aslide button or input 424 may also be used to lock the screen at block1160. It can be appreciated that such locking of the screen, by theuser, may occur at any point after block 1115 in process 1100.

Alternatively, block 1160 may include the counter of block 1145, or anew counter counting to a threshold or a period of time without userinput to an input device or to the display device. For example, a secondthreshold or period of time after which the device enters inactivity dimat block 1110 or 1140 may be predetermined. After the counter reaches ortimes out at this second period of time, the display device may enterlock.

The period of time to enter lock at block 1160 may be a greater than,less than, or equal amount of time (and in addition to) to that to enterinactivity dim at block 1110 (or 1140). Thus if the device entersinactivity dim after 30 seconds, and the lock time is equal to the dimtime, the device will enter lock 30 seconds after entering dim. It canbe appreciated that other periods of time and non-equal periods for dimand lock are contemplated.

Upon entering lock, the display device may act as described above forblock 1105. In addition, the display may turn off, display zerobrightness, or display a minimum brightness of the total brightnessrange. After block 1160, processing continues to block 1170 where it isdetermined if the display device is unlocked or becomes unlocked. Block1170 may include descriptions above for block 1115. If at block 1170 thedisplay device is unlocked, processing returns to block 1120.

Alternatively, if at block 1145 the display device is woken or awaking,processing continues to block 1150. At block 1150, it is determined ifthe environment is brighter or darker than a wake threshold. Block 1150may include determining whether an environment or setting that thedisplay device or portable device is exposed to or that is incident uponthe device has an ambient light brightness change that exceeds the wakethreshold. For example, block 1150 may include receiving an ALS valuethat exceeds a threshold based on a predetermined wake threshold (whichmay be the same as for the lock threshold) and a user setting, for apredetermined period of time. Similar to the discussion above for block1120, block 1150 may include receiving a number of ALS readings oroutputs over time and comparing those readings or outputs to one or morepredetermined threshold values. In some cases, each value may becompared to the threshold, such as to ensure that each value exceeds thethreshold for a period of time. Alternatively, an average of the valuesover the period of time may be compared to the threshold. Block 1150 mayinclude considering outputs from one or more ALSs, such as describedabove for block 1120.

The wake threshold may be a threshold such as described above for thelock threshold or transition threshold. Thus, a wake threshold may be asingle number or level, may be a range of numbers of levels, or may be aminimum transition or change in environment brightness. Similarly, awake threshold may be a number or range based on a predetermined defaultbrightness (e.g., 50% of the maximum brightness level for the display),which may be modified by a user selected brightness setting.

Block 1130, 1140, and/or 1150 may include numerous ALS readings,outputs, or values, such as where the transition is a change over aperiod of time from a first value to a second value. In such cases,causing the display to become brighter, or altering an effect of the ALSchange on control of the display control parameters may be based on thesecond ALS value and alter the effect of the second value on control ofthe display control parameter.

If at block 1150 the environment is brighter than the wake threshold,processing continues to block 1155. Alternatively, if at block 1150 theenvironment is not brighter or darker than the wake threshold,processing continues to block 1158. Also, if at block 1150 theenvironment is darker than the wake threshold, processing continues toblock 1158.

At block 1155, the display device is caused to “snap” brighter or becomeimmediately brighter. Causing the device to snap brighter at block 1155,may include descriptions above at block 1125 for causing a screen tobecome brighter, with the exception of the “snap” as described below.The terms “snap” and “immediately” to describe block 1155 indicate thatthe transition to become brighter happens immediately or nearlyimmediately as opposed to making a smooth transition as described abovefor blocks 1125, 1128, and 1135. Moreover, block 1155 may describedcausing a brightness level of a display device to become brighter basedon, or caused by, an effect of one or more ALS values on control of adisplay control parameter brightness of the display device. The increasemay be to a physical brightness level sufficient to allow a user to seeand identify text, images, and/or video displayed on the display in thecurrent ambient light environment. For example, receiving a user inputto wake the device at block 1145 may immediately cause, as a result ofthat input, an effect of one or more ALS values on control of thebrightness level of the display device by causing it to become brighterby an amount based on the one or more ALS values.

Alternatively, if at block 1150 the environment becomes darker than thewake threshold, at block 1158 the display is caused to snap orimmediately become a “little” brighter. Causing the device to snapbrighter at block 1158, may include descriptions above at block 1155(and/or 1125) for causing a screen to snap brighter, with the exceptionof the term “little”. The term “little” indicates that the brightnessmay not be based on or proportional to the brightness of theenvironment. For example, a little brighter may indicate that the screensnaps from the inactivity dim to a brightness level just above theinactivity dim, such as, without limitation thereto, a level that is 1%,2%, or 5% greater than the inactivity dim brightness level. Snapping alittle brighter may include increasing the physical brightness level toa level sufficient to allow a user to notice the display backlight or achange in the display backlight. For example a user may notice oridentify a change in backlight brightness, text, images, and/or videodisplayed on the display. Thus, upon receiving a user input, such as towake the device at block 1145, an effect may be cause of one or more ALSvalues on control of the display control parameter of brightness toimmediately cause the display to be a little a brighter.

According to some embodiments, determining whether the environment isbrighter than a wake threshold may include considering a brightness wakethreshold similar to the description at block 1130 for a brightertransition threshold. For example, such a bright wake threshold mayrequire a minimum level of change above the inactivity dim level. Inthis case, the display may be caused to snap a little brighter.Alternatively, the bright wake threshold may be a threshold describedfor the lock threshold of 1120 but at the inactivity dim brightnesslevel, such as 5% of the maximum brightness of the display level. Thus,at block 1155, as long as the environment is brighter than the wakethreshold, the device will be caused to snap brighter by at least aminimum or, little brighter amount. In this case, the little brighterlevel or amount of block 1158 will be less than or equal to the level oramount of brightness increase at block 1155.

In addition, according to embodiments, if at block 1150 the environmentis not darker than the wake threshold and is not brighter than the wakethreshold, processing continues to block 1158. Thus, a benefit ofcausing the device to snap a little brighter, without limitationthereto, may be that upon waking the device at block 1145, the screenbecomes brighter by an amount sufficient to be noticed by the userand/or indicates to the user that the device is awake. Alternatively, ifthe device were allowed to become darker due to the darker environment,the user may not notice that the device is awake and may inadvertentlymake erroneous inputs (e.g., by touching or holding the device by thetouch input) or allow erroneous inputs (e.g., by putting the device in apocket or case, or otherwise exposing the touch input to contact) to thedisplay. Specifically, it can be appreciated that in a dark environment,a user may tap the screen to wake the device and, not noticing that thedevice is awake, continue to tap the screen thus causing numerous inputsthat could cause erroneous actions by the device.

After blocks 1155 and 1158 processing returns to block 1130.

It can be appreciated that a power off input, such as using power-oninput 444 to power off the display device or portable device may bereceived or caused by a user at any point during process 1100 (e.g., seedescription of block 1160 for entering lock). Moreover, it is consideredthat each action (e.g., causing or altering), event, state, or status ofeach block of process 1100 may occur automatically (e.g., automaticallycausing a brightness level of the display device to become one ofbrighter and dimmer) with the exception of block 1105, 1115, and 1170.Also, according to embodiments, each action, event, state, or status ofeach block of process 1100 may include displaying a physical brightnesslevel of a backlight of a portable device according to the a displaycontrol parameter (e.g., automatically causing a brightness level of thedisplay device to become one of brighter and dimmer) with the exceptionof block 1105, 1115, and 1170.

Moreover, according to embodiments, various blocks or sets of blocks maybe removed from or occur independently of process 1100. For example,some embodiments may include blocks 1115, 1120, 1125, and 1128, but noothers. Independently of (or in addition to, in some examples) thoseblocks, some embodiments may include blocks 1130, 1135, and 1138, but noothers. Next, independent of the blocks of either or both of theembodiments described immediately above (or in addition to, in someexamples), some embodiments may include blocks 1145, 1150, 1155 and1158, but no others.

Input 1124, 1134, and/or 1144 maybe described as user inputs of adisplay control parameter, where the display control parameter is unlock(and/or lock), wake, and/or power on (and/or power off). In some cases,any of these embodiments may be effected additionally by another userinput or setting (e.g., in addition to unlock or wake). For example, auser setting of a physical brightness level of a backlight of thedisplay device may be received. The lock or wake threshold may be basedon a predetermined value (e.g., default brightness, say 50%) and thisuser setting. Then, the display control parameter (e.g., backlightbrightness level) may be based on the predetermined value, the usersetting, and the ALS value. The backlight brightness level may be for aportable device, and the level may be capable of being a value within arange of values (e.g., 0% to 100% maximum display brightness).

According to embodiments, the increase or decrease in the displaycontrol parameter may be proportional to, relative to, dependent on, ormatch the ALS value. Also, the ALS value is based on an amount ofambient light in the environment incident upon the display device;and/or the display control parameter may be a physical brightness levelof the display device that is sufficient to allow a user to see andidentify text, images, and/or video displayed on the display.

According to embodiments, the concepts above (e.g., see FIGS. 9-11,without limitation thereto) for receiving a user input or setting (orchanges thereof) of a display control parameter, and causing or altering(or causing not to be altered), (automatically in some cases) based onthe user input or setting, an effect of an ALS on control of the displaycontrol parameter apply to portable and non-portable devices. Suchportable devices include devices having the functionality of a cellularphone, touch screen, media player (e.g., audio such as MP-3, and/orvideo), portable computer, personal digital assistant, and/or Internetbrowser. Thus, in some case, a parameter of a backlight for a portabledevice (such as a cell phone with a media player, MP-3 player, touchscreen, and/or lap-top computer) may be altered depending on an ambientlight environment (e.g., an amount of light in a certain setting) thatthe device is currently in; that the device is moved into (e.g., movingfrom indoor to outdoor light, and vice versa); and/or that changes atthe device (e.g., by turning on, turning off, or adjusting (such asusing a dimmer switch) a level of indoor lighting; or outdoor light(e.g,. by opening or closing curtains, blinds, doors, etc.).Alternatively, in some cases, a parameter of a backlight for anon-portable device (such as a desktop computer) may be altereddepending on an ambient light environment that the device is currentlyin or that changes at the device in the room the device is in).

Total ambient light may be normalized to come up with a number from 0 to1, with 1 representing full sunlight and 0 representing total darkness(e.g., and a lighted room between 1 and 0, with a brightly lit roomabove a softly or darkly lit room). Other examples may be an office withsome sun coming through the window (e.g., blinds blocking half the areaof the window) may be the number 0.5; bright sun may be the number 0.95;a dark room with 1 dim light, a TV, or night light may be the number0.05.

According to some embodiments, the ALS output value received from one ormore sensors may be used to operate a proximity sensor of an electronicdevice by (automatically in some cases) setting, causing, altering orchanging an on/off setting (e.g., setting, event, level, state, and/orstatus) of a proximity sensor. The setting or changing may be to set oralter a setting of a proximity sensor to power up, turn on, power down,turn off, such according to an output level or change in level of anALS. In some cases, when a change to a light sensor output level (e.g.,a change in ambient light level) that exceeds a threshold limit, theproximity sensor powers up, turns on, powers down, or turns off. Thechange in the output level can be a rate of change of an ambient lightlevel and an amount of change of an ambient light level that exceeds athreshold. For example, the change may be a rapid (e.g., over a shortperiod of time) or drastic (e.g., over a wide range of levels) change inthe visible light or IR light as determined by one or more ALS sensors,as described herein. For multiple sensors, the sensor outputs may bemultiplied or weighted as described herein. Moreover, the ALS sensoroutput may be compared to a rate of change or amount of change thresholdto cause the proximity sensor to power up.

Thus, the ALS sensor output may be received by an electronic device,processor, or software application as described herein which causespowering up or turning on of the proximity sensor in response to the ALSlevel exceeding the threshold. It can be appreciated that this processallows for conservation or reduction of use of power or battery energyconsumed by the proximity sensor (e.g., such as by the IR emitter,sensor, and processing logic).

Also, in some cases, the ALS sensor output may be used in connectionwith other sensor outputs, such as accelerometer output, a “lock” button(e.g., to hold a setting of a device), and “on” button to turn on anelectronic device. The concepts described above with respect to turningon a proximity sensor apply here as well, such as to conserver or reducepower or battery consumption by only turning on the device if, inaddition to another sensor output, a threshold is exceeded by the ALSsensor output. It can be appreciated that this reduces occurrences orpossibilities of an inadvertent “bump”, “lock” button, “on” buttonpressure from turning on the device and consuming battery power when notintended by the user.

According to embodiments (e.g., see FIGS. 9-11, without limitationthereto), a “user input” or “user setting” may be a brightness orcontrast level, setting, or selection received (e.g., requested) fromthe user by a device, processor, or software application. In some cases,a “user input” or “user setting” may be a power-on/off, lock/unlock,wake/inactive dim level, setting, or selection received from the user bya device, processor, or software application. As such, the user input orsetting may describe data relating to touches received by a touch inputpanel, button, or slide; data received from an input device; and/or datareceived from a user interface of an electronic device or touch screenthereof. In some cases the user setting may be a user selectedbrightness level, such as to select a brightness level in a range ofuser brightness level settings.

Also, according to embodiments, the output of the light sensor may be avalue or level of ambient light (e.g., visible ambient light) sent bythe sensor and received by a device, processor, or software application.For example, the light sensor “value” may be an ALS level, or output,such as a reading, electrical signal level or amplitude output by an ALSbased on a level or intensity of ambient light received by or incidentupon the ALS.

Next, “control” of a display control parameter may describe setting,changing, effecting, determining, causing, altering, causing not to bealtered, or adjusting the parameter or level of the parameter.

Moreover, use of the term “weight”, “weighted” or “weighting” herein maydescribe using a weight value or scalar stored in a memory, logic,processing logic, register, or software to multiply, increase, ordecrease the amplitude or intensity of a signal or value (e.g., such asa detected or sensed intensity or amplitude). The weighted value may bedescribed as a value that is scaled, multiplied, driven, increased,amplified, or attenuated by the weight. In some cases, weighting maydescribe using software to apply a “gain” to an output of a sensor orphotodiode.

Also, the term “automatically” may describe a cause and effectrelationship, such as where something is caused, altered, caused not tobe altered, changed, or set without receiving a user input or actiondirected at the altered or changed result. For example, a setting,input, received value (or change thereof), or selection received from auser that causes a first effect (e.g., for one display control parameteror user setting, other than a brightness level, such as a lock/unlock orwake input), may also cause an additional change or effect in a seconddisplay control parameter or level (e.g., automatically cause or alter abrightness level). In some cases, “automatically” may describe a resultthat is a secondary result or in addition to a primary result accordingto a received user input, setting or selection.

According to some embodiments, the concepts described above (e.g., forFIGS. 9-11) may be implemented using a machine accessible mediumcontaining instructions (e.g., such as storage device 104, memory 404,or executable program/software instructions stored thereon) that, whenexecuted, cause a machine or processor (e.g., such as digital processingsystem 103, microprocessor 153, or processor 402) to perform (e.g.,automatically or not) one or more actions. The actions may include thereceiving, causing, altering, controlling, generating, displaying,relating, processing, processes, and/or other actions, described herein,such as to operate a data processing system, portable device, electronicdevice, display, display control parameter, backlight control parameter,backlight brightness, or backlight contrast as described herein.

Also, a user setting, selection, selected brightness level or input maydescribe a change in the setting, selection, level or input, such as onethat (automatically in some cases) causes or alters an ALS outputeffect, weight, display control parameter, or display brightness levelaccording to that change. In this case, setting the weight may or maynot include changing a current setting of the weight of the ALS outputvalue. In some cases, such user selection may be a user input to controla user interface feature value, and a weight of an ALS output value thatthe user interface feature level is based on may be automatically set oradjusted as a result of, depending on, or due to the user input.

Finally, it can be appreciated that the user setting (or changethereof), user input (or change thereof), threshold (e.g., predeterminedthreshold), level (e.g., predetermined level), amount (e.g.,predetermined amount), display control parameter, light sensor value,light sensor output level (e.g., value), user selected brightness level,display brightness level, ALS output weight, ALS output level, ALS levelchange, device setting and/or system requested level described hereinmay be stored in a machine accessible medium, such as a memory or datastorage device (e.g., device 104, memory 404, system 103, processor 153,processor 402, and the like). In some cases, the stored values,selections, or levels, etc. noted above may be accessed by a device orprocessor to determine or calculate a display control parameter orbrightness level (e.g., displayed by a backlight of a display).

In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be evidentthat various modifications may be made thereto without departing fromthe broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in thefollowing claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to beregarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.

1. A method of operating a display device of an electronic device, themethod comprising: receiving a user input of a first display controlparameter; causing, as a result of the input, an effect of an ambientlight sensor (ALS) value on control of a second display controlparameter.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first display controlparameter is one of an unlock of a touch screen input capability of thedisplay device, and a wake of the display device from an inactivity dim;and wherein the second display control parameter is a brightness levelof the display device.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the inputunlocks the display device, and wherein the effect includesautomatically causing a brightness level of the display device to becomeone of brighter and dimmer.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprisingdisplaying a physical brightness level of a backlight of a portabledevice according to the second display control parameter.
 5. The methodof claim 3, wherein the input unlocks the display device from a lockedstate to an unlocked state, the locked state prohibiting the displaydevice from receiving inputs from a touch screen of the display device,and the unlocked state allowing the display device to receive inputsfrom the touch screen.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the inputunlocks the display device, and further comprising: if the ALS value isgreater than a lock threshold, automatically causing, based on the ALSvalue, an increase in the display control parameter; and if the ALSvalue is less than the lock threshold, automatically causing, based onthe ALS value, a decrease in the display control parameter.
 7. Themethod of claim 6 further comprising: receiving a user setting of aphysical brightness level of a backlight of the display device; whereinthe lock threshold is based on a predetermined value and the usersetting; and wherein the second display control parameter is based onthe predetermined value, the user setting, and the ALS value.
 8. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the user setting comprises a backlightbrightness level of a portable device, and the level is capable of beinga value within a range of values.
 9. The method of claim 6, wherein theincrease in the display control parameter matches the ALS value, and thedecrease in the display control parameter matches the ALS value.
 10. Themethod of claim above 6, wherein the ALS value is based on an amount ofambient light in the environment incident upon the display device;wherein the display control parameter is a physical brightness level ofthe display device; and wherein the physical brightness level issufficient to allow a user to see and identify text, images, and/orvideo displayed on the display.
 11. The method of claim 1 wherein theinput wakes the display device, and wherein the effect includesautomatically causing a brightness level of the display device to becomebrighter.
 12. The method of claim 11 further comprising displaying aphysical brightness level of a backlight of a portable device accordingto the second display control parameter.
 13. The method of claim 1wherein the input wakes the display device, and further comprising: ifthe ALS value is greater than a wake threshold, automatically causing,based on the ALS value, a first increase in the display controlparameter; and if the ALS value is less than the wake threshold,automatically causing, not based on the ALS value, a predeterminedsecond increase in the display control parameter, wherein the secondincrease is less than the first increase.
 14. The method of claim 13further comprising: if the ALS value is greater than the wake threshold,automatically causing, based on the value change, a brightness level ofthe display device to snap brighter by the first increase; and if theALS value is less than the wake threshold, automatically causing, basedon the value change, the brightness level of the display device to snapa little brighter by the second increase.
 15. The method of claim 14,wherein the ALS value is based on an amount of ambient light in theenvironment incident upon the display device; and wherein the physicalbrightness level is sufficient to allow a user to see and identify text,images, and/or video displayed on the display.
 16. The method of claim13 further comprising: receiving a user setting of a physical brightnesslevel of a backlight of the display device; wherein the wake thresholdis based on a predetermined value and the user setting; and wherein thesecond display control parameter is based on the predetermined value,the user setting, and the ALS value.
 17. The method of claim 16, whereinthe user setting comprises a backlight brightness level of a portabledevice, and the level is capable of being a value within a range ofvalues.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein the first increase in thedisplay control parameter matches the ALS value, and the second increasein the display control parameter is sufficient to allow a user to noticea change in backlight brightness of the display device.
 19. A method ofoperating a display device of an electronic device, the methodcomprising: receiving an ambient light sensor (ALS) value change; if thechange is an increase, automatically altering, based on the ALS valuechange, an effect of the ALS value change on control of the displaycontrol parameter; and if the change is a decrease, not automaticallyaltering, based on the ALS value change, an effect of the ALS valuechange on control of the display control parameter.
 20. The method ofclaim 19 further comprising: if the value change is greater than apredetermined transition threshold, automatically causing, based on thevalue change, an increase in the display control parameter; and if thevalue change is less than the predetermined transition threshold,causing the display control parameter to not become brighter or dimmer.21. The method of claim 20, wherein the increase in the display controlparameter matches the ALS value change.
 22. The method of claim 19,further comprising displaying a physical brightness level of a backlightof a portable device according to the second display control parameter.23. The method of claim 19, wherein the ALS value is based on an amountof ambient light in the environment incident upon the display device;wherein the display control parameter is a physical brightness level ofthe display device; and wherein the physical brightness level issufficient to allow a user to see and identify text, images, and/orvideo displayed on the display.
 24. A machine readable medium containingexecutable program instructions which when executed cause a method ofoperating a display device of a data processing system, the methodcomprising: receiving a user input of a first display control parameter;causing, as a result of the input, an effect of an ambient light sensor(ALS) value on control of a second display control parameter.
 25. Themedium of claim 24 wherein the input unlocks the display device, andwherein the effect includes automatically causing a brightness level ofthe display device to become one of brighter and dimmer.
 26. The mediumof claim 24 wherein the input unlocks the display device, and the methodfurther comprising: if the ALS value is greater than a lock threshold,automatically causing, based on the ALS value, an increase in thedisplay control parameter; and if the ALS value is less than the lockthreshold, automatically causing, based on the ALS value, a decrease inthe display control parameter.
 27. The medium of claim 26 the methodfurther comprising: receiving a user setting of a physical brightnesslevel of a backlight of the display device; wherein the lock thresholdis based on a predetermined value and the user setting; and wherein thesecond display control parameter is based on the predetermined value,the user setting, and the ALS value.
 28. The medium of claim 24 whereinthe input wakes the display device, and wherein the effect includesautomatically causing a brightness level of the display device to becomebrighter.
 29. The medium of claim 24 wherein the input wakes the displaydevice, and the method further comprising: if the ALS value is greaterthan a wake threshold, automatically causing, based on the ALS value, afirst increase in the display control parameter; and if the ALS value isless than the wake threshold, automatically causing, not based on theALS value, a predetermined second increase in the display controlparameter, wherein the second increase is less than the first increase.30. The medium of claim 29 the method further comprising: if the ALSvalue is greater than the wake threshold, automatically causing, basedon the value change, a brightness level of the display device to snapbrighter by the first increase; and if the ALS value is less than thewake threshold, automatically causing, based on the value change, thebrightness level of the display device to snap a little brighter by thesecond increase.
 31. The medium of claim 29 the method furthercomprising: receiving a user setting of a physical brightness level of abacklight of the display device; wherein the wake threshold is based ona predetermined value and the user setting; and wherein the seconddisplay control parameter is based on the predetermined value, the usersetting, and the ALS value.
 32. A machine readable medium containingexecutable program instructions which when executed cause a method ofoperating a display device of a data processing system, the methodcomprising: receiving an ambient light sensor (ALS) value change; if thechange is an increase, automatically altering, based on the ALS valuechange, an effect of the ALS value change on control of the displaycontrol parameter; and if the change is a decrease, not automaticallyaltering, based on the ALS value change, an effect of the ALS valuechange on control of the display control parameter.
 33. The medium ofclaim 32 the method further comprising: if the value change is greaterthan a predetermined transition threshold, automatically causing, basedon the value change, an increase in the display control parameter; andif the value change is less than the predetermined transition threshold,causing the display control parameter to not become brighter or dimmer.